This City Works (an example)

As I continue my studies of the colloquial Egyptian dialect of Arabic, and as the nuances of this society become more evident, I am increasingly aware of just how well this city functions. From the outside it is a mess: polluted, overcrowded, plagued by unemployment and underemployment, and overwhelmingly unmanageable. But in order to house 18 million people Cairo has developed a complex social and cultural infrastructure capable of meeting any need.

We were told, before moving out of the military hotel, that we would have to pay 300 U.S. Dollars for a bus pass (conversion rate: $300 US = approximately 1,500 Falafel Sandwiches, the effective currency here). We were told that no taxi would be willing to drive to the new campus, and that there were certainly no public buses. And that by moving out of the hotels, and out of AUC-provided housing, we were forfeiting our 'free' means of transport (free is only relative, when you take into consideration the extent to which we were being ripped off, living in the hotels).

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in an AUC shuttle at the new campus with Andrew, one of my flatmates. An RA from the hotels climbed in, and told us that they would be moving out of the hotels into another set of hotels, by November, and that the AUC shuttle (which we have not paid for), would no longer provide service to Nasr City, and that it was about time we found an alternate means of transportation. It was the same RA who had informed me of the supposed lack of such alternate means. This was just the incentive I needed to give public buses a try.

So I left Andrew with my bag and started walking. It turns out there is a bus route named Gam'ia (the arabic word for University), that originates in 'Ashr, makes its way out to the AUC, does a lap around the campus, and returns to 'Ashr, which as far as I can tell is on the eastern edge of Nasr City (probably around Taha Husayn Street, on this map). From 'Ashr, there is a bus that runs down our street. As Andrew and I raced one another back to the Apartment, taunting each other by text message, I was sure this new route would take twice as long as the AUC shuttle, which is contracted to take the fastest route possible from the hotels to the campus. Naturally, I was taken aback when I saw Andrew in his conspicuous Viking's jersey turning the corner to our Apartment. I have since been informed that the route we are now taking is far more direct than that which the AUC shuttles take, and that were it not for the inevitable 10 to 15 minute wait in 'Ashr, the trip would take less than half an hour, making it the shortest commute of any student at AUC, in AUC or self-provided housing.

Before I finish, I'd like to take a minute to describe these buses, because there exists no means of transportation similar to them in the United States. From what I've gathered, they are not public. They are privately owned, unsubsidized microbuses that call themselves Big Taxis. They are the organic product of sprawling city with limited public transportation, and they were at first outlawed. The drivers were persistent, and so were the passengers. And today they are almost as common as small taxis. They run fixed routes, yelling the name of the route out of a window, but they are subject to change an intended route based on, as an Egyptian described it: "flow". In essence, they respond to demand. Capitalists might cite them as an example of the free-market's outstanding capacity to solve any problem. They are all white. Though the passengers will open the sliding door themselves, the driver often utilizes a basic understanding of the laws of physics to close them. He will get a little momentum going and, once the van is full, slam on the breaks, sending the door sliding shut at a speed that makes your fingers hurt just thinking about it. They cost between a pound and two pounds, which converts to one or two falafels. They drive fast, but they're professionals, and perhaps it's unjustified, but they feel safe. In short, I propose the white-microbus-system as a solution to a plethora of social and economic issues that plague our country: emissions and pollution, the rising cost of gas and unemployment, to name a few.